Screen Blanking Under X (Shallow Thoughts)

Screen Blanking Under X

An unexplained change in the screen blanking timeout sent me down the primrose path of learning about dpms, vbetool and screen blanking. I guess it had to happen eventually.

It started when my laptop, which normally can sit for about ten minutes before the screen goes black, suddenly started blanking the screen after only two minutes.

After a few days of sporadic research, I now know what pieces are involved and how to fix the timeout. But it turns out not everything works the way it's supposed to. I've written up my findings: A Primer on Screen Blanking Under Xorg.